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It’s easy for your home to get lost under all the clutter that seems to multiply from nowhere. Enter your email address into the form below and click "Subscribe" to receive the best of DIY Home World delivered direct to your inbox. I feel like I am always in a mode of decluttering, because I hate things not serving a purpose in my home. For every item that gathers dust, it takes time to clean, maintain, or clear out of the way to accomplish another task. For clothing, reverse the direction of the hangers for any items that you are unsure about. When you seek to intentionally declutter your home, it makes it so much easier to be a peaceful and joyful homemaker. Interestingly enough, this morinng I decided to finally tackle the stuff I’ve been shoving under my bed for years. I have been doing something of the sort for a while but it seems the more i try the worse my house gets lol. Because of your words of encouragement in this post, I spent some time de-cluttering my home of old clothes and junk. I need to go through the study again too as I am sure there are items and yes more books that I have not read in a long time that just need to go.
The kitchen though definitely does need to be de-cluttered and we have lots of china and glassware that we really do not use which I need to go through and sort out.
So…my mind is VERY VERY cluttered (it is!) and I do find the clutter in our home fraying our family…but I am not an organized girl by nature and we live in a VERY small apartment (all the more reason to try to be relentlessly organized, right?
How do you handle toys and school items and avoid having those things completely possess whatever room they’re in? Also – were your brothers by any chance in a nerdy homeschool debate league years ago? Perhaps you could ask him about trying an “outbox” of possible get-rid-of items?
I was just wondering how much do you keep for clothes and for extra things like coats and shoes for your children?
I have been doing this for the last two weeks (includes some redecorating, etc) and I now only have my closet left.
Your previous posts on simplifying in each room were quite helpful to me as I started tackling our huge clean out. I moved over the summer and there was a week we were in our new house without our stuff due to the movers schedule.
We’re pretty settled now but it is a lot more effort maintaining the house and keeping our stuff at bay.
Having recently moved from a 4 bedroom home with a double garage to a 3 bedroom home with no garage, I really see the value of getting rid of stuff!! As for how to cut down on the toys, the best way is to pay attention to what your kids really play with. Good info to keep in mind today since organizing the home school cupboard in prep for the new school year is on my to-do list! Regarding the back door, be sure to position the furniture so the back door can open all the way, especially for showings. I have a ten piece Cuisinart stainless steel cookware set (which is basically six pieces with four lids), one cuisinart green gourmet omelet pan, and one 5.5 qt Le Creuset french oven. I’ve created printable decluttering calendars for June, July and August for you to write which areas you plan to declutter, and when. I’ll be sharing posts every few weeks on various areas of my home and showing you the good, the bad, and the CLUTTER-y. Dreamer, thinker, + lemon squeezer; you'll usually find me clutching a mug of coffee, glue gun, fandeck of paint colors, and a child at any given time. Are you struggling to keep your head above water in maintaining your home in a simple and peaceful manner? As I have been packing some of our goods in preparation for a potential move, it has helped me further declutter and seriously evaluate what do I want to take to another home. If they don’t get worn in the next month, you will know for sure that they need to go.
I do still have some areas of our home to de-clutter and these include the kitchen and clothes.
His clothes in the wardrobe take up more space than mine, but I do need to de-clutter our wardrobe badly. I also have paperwork I need to sort through (though most of this was done about a month back) in our filing cabinet. I have two girls and while I have made a habit of going through toys several times a year and parring down, it just seems like we have a lot. I saw a picture of your family in your June update and one of them (Stephen?) looks really familiar.

My hubby and I make a wonderful living, so we aren’t pinching pennies and needing to find deals and such. It seems like my children have twenty pairs of different kinds of shoes- boots, sandals, dress shoes, etc. My husband and I got married in middle age & have had a lot to get rid of as we combined households. We have to girlies who are around the same ages as your children and life is so much easier when we keep the clutter to a minimum. It’s so freeing to just open a closet or cabinet and get that one thing I need without having to move half a dozen other things out of the way first.
I’m finding it’s so much better to have a de-cluttered house, especially with a 1 and 2 year old!
What do you do about the stuff that you like to have back-ups of, in case you lose the one you really like (such as hats for my daughter, or aprons, or several similar toys or blankets…)? I do have two aprons, as one always seems to be in the wash or have two people helping with preparations. I wrote on getting organized today too and am doing a link up – you should link this post up!!! I seem to have a lot, some I use, some I don’t, but do use once and a while, like Thanksgiving or Christmas. I do have a roasting pan that I store in the garage for large meats – like a turkey, etc. Something about summer’s longer days and more freedom in our schedules makes it perfect for decluttering and organizing our homes before we settle back in to hibernate this fall.
I try to drop off at the thrift store every two weeks so it doesn’t build up in my house. I'm Carrie-- a dreamer, overthinker, + lemon squeezer, making it my mission to share fresh ideas for home and family. It takes a bit of persistent effort to maintain a simple home, but it is well worth it, as you can turn your focus towards the more important things in life – relationships and hospitality. So that my home can be a more peaceful place for the rest and refreshment of my family and those God has called us to serve in our community and church.
After the initial re-haul, maintaining a simple clutter free home is so much easier, and takes a bit of time here and there – often taking place with the changing of the seasons in my home. She loves inspiring women around the world toward simple, natural, and intentional living for the glory of God. There is one coat that I have been hanging onto for years now and this coat I have one about three times in all the years I have had it, so it does need to go.I have clothes stacked in draw underneath the bed,so these need sorting through badly and I do need to get rid of some. I keep a box for Goodwill in my garage at all times, and put things in there that I no longer use.
I am very aware of what we actually need to survive seeing as how everything gets measured in terms of size and weight! I love the idea of fall cleaning instead of spring cleaning (since I live in Canada and we stay in a lot more in the winter, so it’s good to get things all nice and clean for the winter months). It’s easier to look through, and it saves me the guilt I would feel if I just got rid of something completely. I am almost there and your list of questions will be really helpful in letting go of extra stuff in my closet. We are going to cull our books and give them to some pastors so that they can give them out to people who are new Christians. Children seem to play so much better when they have fewer toy options available and the space has less clutter overall! We’ve also enjoyed the added benefit of being able to bless friends and strangers with things we no longer need! My children have way to many toys I just do not know how to weed them out because they seem to enjoy them all but they are also often board and dissatisfied with what they have.
For kids, I watch them play first so I can see what they are playing with and how they play. This is a really good reminder for me to not focus on acquiring, but making our home a space that is useful and focused. The need to declutter a second year in a row isn’t a failure, it’s actually a success! The general rule of thumb is to have a place for trash (trash can), donate (I use white trash bags for clothing and cardboard boxes for the rest), sell (these go in cardboard boxes or plastic bins), and consign at kids’ consignment sales (plastic bins). Among many other things under my bed, I found 4 stacks of magazines that are up to 15 years old! Beyond this the other shelves store books, 5 puzzles, a drum, wooden train, and 3 wooden cars. I would hate to have to go out an buy a new hat just because we lost our favorite and only one. This way, when people come to see the living room, they can sit on the sofa and look out to the pretty backyard or deck and fully open the back door to the patio.

You can also Freecycle the items, sell them online or on Craigslist or a Facebook Yard Sale group… but whatever you do, make sure it gets DONE.
I think the hardest for me is all the stuff that people have given me, and that I don’t want, but feel guilty getting rid of. And when the 2nd and 3rd child came along, we were blessed beyond measure by family and friends.
Now that I ready your post, I’m even more inspired to be more ruthless in my purging!
I used to be completely baffled at the emotional attachment people have with stuff and I totally disregarded the validity behind this as I am the complete opposite, I have no attachment to stuff whatsover. They’ll have their own emotional items in the future, why burden them with mine as well? I think we’ve managed to outfit a few folks kitchens and a newly married couple with many things. Next, I sort the toys and eliminate a fair amount of them (usually the Mom is doing this part with me).
I keep finding old things I have saved over the years and left at my parents house, since they have the space. I like to put a pretty pot of flowers on the deck or some flowers in the back yard as well-this draws the eye outdoors.
No trips to the Dollar Store or strolling through thrift stores while waiting to pick up my kids. At the very least, I know I need to make sure our trash and recycling bins are empty and ready to go. Use the opportunity to teach your kids about giving generously to bless others with your stuff. But after thinking through this issue as someone close to my life who have similar issues had to pack up their stuff involuntarily, I totally get it now. I also only kept appliances that were multitaskers, and got rid of everything that was bulky and only had a single use (I think you have a post about that somewhere). We keep a small box of craft supplies in the closet that has markers, crayons, paper, glue, pipe cleaners, etc.
By that time, I have a space plan and know where the toys are going and how much is going to fit.
To me, having tubs of clothes (for the next one, what if the next one doesn’t come, how long do you keep it??
Lastly, we might try to have another yard sale this year since our last one was successful. Between that and the kids stuff that I am keeping but has to be stored there is a lot of stuff around. My opinion, Any solutions you impose on your husband will NOT work, because there IS an emotional component that needs be honored and dealt with, and it would have to be something your husband decides to do for himself and the family.
I’ve noticed with my nieces and nephews that one or two items that have been handed down (with special intent) will receive better care than if there are 20 items- something about rarity producing more value. The 9 cube organizer works really well because you can just pull out one tote at a time for the kids to play with.
Yesterday I started packing up and looking a things like my clothes and realizing that I hardly ever wear some of them. Thanks for the timely info I’m encouraged to keep on with the decluttering in my bedroom, to make it into the restful, relaxing space I want it to be.
I personally feel its a very wise investment to save the kids’ clothes since we plan on having more kids. So when I get back to Mexico next week they are going to be past on to one of my girls or the local church.
Those few things alone should STOP the clutter at it’s source and allow some breathing room to get rid of what we already have. It was so helpful for the first to save and pass on to her sister, I can’t imagine having to hunt down all those deals the second time that I found the first time. I’ve also spent a lot of time sorting through childhood things that I forgot I even had!
From there, I make sure that toys are stored in places that are easy for them to put away and not too fussy.
It so encouraging to know that there are other young Christian woman who are wanting to make a difference.